The leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx), also referred to as the sea leopard, is the second largest species of seal in the Antarctic (after the southern elephant seal). It is a top order predator, feeding on a wide range of prey including cephalopods, other pinnipeds, krill, fish, and birds, particularly penguins, its only natural predator being the orca. It is the only species in the genus Hydrurga. Its closest relatives are the Ross seal, the crabeater seal, and the Weddell seal, which are all Antarctic seals of the tribe Lobodontini.
HINT:
👉 Leopard seal in the context of Female anatomy
Sexual dimorphism is the condition where different sexes of the same species exhibit different morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecious species, which consist of most animals and some plants. Differences may include secondary sex characteristics, size, weight, color, markings, or behavioral or cognitive traits. Male-male reproductive competition has evolved a diverse array of sexually dimorphic traits. Aggressive utility traits such as "battle" teeth and blunt heads reinforced as battering rams are used as weapons in aggressive interactions between rivals. Passive displays such as ornamental feathering or song-calling have also evolved mainly through sexual selection. These differences may be subtle or exaggerated and may be subjected to sexual selection and natural selection. The opposite of dimorphism is monomorphism, when both biological sexes are phenotypically indistinguishable from each other.
Reversed sexual dimorphism (RSD) is a condition where females of a species are larger or more ornamented than the males. Species prominently displaying RSD include raptors, spiders, the leopard seal, and certain waders; in waders, it is often combined with reversed sexual dichromatism and sex role reversal.
In this Dossier
Leopard seal in the context of Marine mammal
Marine mammals are mammals that rely on marine ecosystems for their existence. They include animals such as cetaceans, pinnipeds, sirenians, sea otters and polar bears. They are an informal group, unified only by their reliance on marine environments for feeding and survival.
Marine mammal adaptation to an aquatic lifestyle varies considerably between species. Both cetaceans and sirenians are fully aquatic and therefore are obligate water dwellers. Pinnipeds are semiaquatic; they spend the majority of their time in the water but need to return to land for important activities such as mating, breeding and molting. Sea otters tend to live in kelp forests and estuaries. In contrast, the polar bear is mostly terrestrial and only go into the water on occasions of necessity, and are thus much less adapted to aquatic living. The diets of marine mammals vary considerably as well; some eat zooplankton, others eat fish, squid, shellfish, or seagrass, and a few eat other mammals. While the number of marine mammals is small compared to those found on land, their roles in various ecosystems are large, especially concerning the maintenance of marine ecosystems, through processes including the regulation of prey populations. This role in maintaining ecosystems makes them of particular concern as 23% of marine mammal species are currently threatened.
View the full Wikipedia page for Marine mammalLeopard seal in the context of King penguin
The king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) is the second largest species of penguin, smaller than but somewhat similar in appearance to the emperor penguin.
King penguins mainly eat lanternfish, squid, and krill. On foraging trips, king penguins repeatedly dive to over 100 metres (300 ft), and have been recorded at depths greater than 300 metres (1,000 ft). Predators of the king penguin include giant petrels, skuas, the snowy sheathbill, the leopard seal, and the orca.
View the full Wikipedia page for King penguinLeopard seal in the context of Lobodontini
The true seal tribe Lobodontini, collectively known as the Antarctic seals or lobodontin seals, consist of four species of seals in four genera: the crabeater seal (Lobodon carcinophaga), the leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx), the Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddelli), and the Ross seal (Ommatophoca rossii). All lobodontine seals have circumpolar distributions surrounding Antarctica. They include both the world's most abundant seal (the crabeater seal) and the only predominantly mammal-eating seal (the leopard seal). While the Weddell seal prefers the shore-fast ice, the other species live primarily on and around the off-shore pack ice. Thus, though they are collectively the most abundant group of seals in the world, the combination of remote range and inaccessible habitat make them among the least well-studied of the world's seals.
View the full Wikipedia page for Lobodontini